Fire Update – Princesa, Maldonado

The beginning of Fallas has brought a frightening rash of unofficial and unwanted fires to our neighborhood, on the south side of Carmen.

First was the sad destruction of the Teatro Princesa, which was engulfed by flames a couple weeks ago. Levante reports that the city is taking charge of the destruction of the theater, as the property owners have not acted on the demolition order. Already cranes are in place on Calle Murillo, starting to take down some of the more dangerous structures in the building where the fire began — Murillo #6. We took some interesting images of the men at work.

Then, as we were going home from today’s mascletà, we almost walked right into another raging building fire on Calle del Maldonado. We have no idea how this one started, but it was pretty frightening.

It was another abandoned building, in a city that’s sadly full of them. What I’d like to know is, why does the city government spend so much money building a Formula 1 track, and the City of Arts & Sciences, when there are so many dangerous and abandoned buildings directly in the city center?

Pay attention the next time you walk through Carmen — the historic heart of the city — and notice the sad ratio of empty buildings in ruin, to those that are livable. Wouldn’t taxpayer money be better spent fixing these up, than attracting elite sporting events?

About Us

We're Jürgen and Mike, from Germany and the USA. We've been living in Valencia on-and-off since 2008. Much of our time is spent traveling the world with For 91 Days... but Valencia is the city we call home, and to which we'll always return.